Pericles, Paul, and Protestantism

Thanks to decreasing concerns that its episodic plot contains a stale, moldy relic, Pericles has been lately rehabilitated. Its design now seems right for a play that prioritizes politics and political theory over psychological and dramatic consistency, as in nondramatic romances.¹ However, questions of politics and power remind us that theology framed early modern discussions of political theory.² Feminist analyses and studies of specific female characters also bring us to theological matters.³ Marina's speech marks her as a saintly figure of eloquentia derived not just from Senecan Controversiae but also from Christian hagiography.⁴

The recent surge of speculation about Shakespeare's Catholic roots has made readers sensitive to latent Catholic discourses in the plays.⁵ Indeed, with sources in medieval (Catholic) chivalric romance, a similarity to saints' plays, possible Marian references, and depictions of effective rituals by Cerimon, some tones in Pericles sound like the old religion.⁶ However, more than one kind of theology circulates throughout the play, most likely because the sixteenth century nurtured imprecise, mixed belief systems. Perhaps because, as literary scholars turned to cultural history, Eamon Duffy showed that ongoing Catholic practices persisted after the Reformation, we have focused more on material than on theological continuities.⁷ In fact, Protestant anxieties about the relationship between word, image, and meaning derive from Christian traditions as old as Augustinian thought.⁸ The pre-Reformation cult of the Holy Name becomes the Protestant emphasis on one's personal relationship with the savior; medieval traditions that see the crucifix as the central Christian truth become the Reformation focus on direct communication with the Word.⁹ In Alexandra Walsham's words, both articulations of Christianity reinforce the idea of a "sacramental" and moralized" universe.¹⁰ And both draw extensively on Paul's writings. For example, although a doctor of the Church, Augustine's conversion in book 8 of Confessions explicitly follows the narrative of Paul's experience in Acts 9, a fact made clear by Augustine's praise of Paul and extended engagement with Romans. (His ultimate conversion comes after he hears a child's voice, rushes into his house, and reads that epistle from his Bible.)

Continuities also exist because the consequences of Catholic and Protestant positions do not always diverge widely, especially if we see Paul and many early modern Protestants influenced by him less as dualists than as universalists (rhetorically bridging texts from multiple faiths to envision the fulfillment of God's all-inclusive design), as Gregory Kneidel does.¹¹ In general, Shakespeare's romances engage rhetorically with more than one theological design.¹² Although comparing parts of Pericles to medieval saints' plays, Howard Felperin could be describing Protestant "saints" like those in John Foxe when he says that unlike tragic heroes, who try until the end to redeem themselves, heroes in romance "are stripped of all hope or illusion of redeeming themselves ... and this is essential to their redemption."¹³ If Felperin's statement is indeed true of romance heroes, then that essentially medieval, Catholic form shows a surprising compatibility with Reformation arguments that individuals can do little to shape their fate. As he does for other issues, such as power, in Pericles Shakespeare often uses perspectives like those of the old religion to critique the new.¹⁴

It is not just overlap between medieval and early modern theology that makes the theology of Pericles difficult to categorize. Among Reformation theologians there was considerable variation on issues that concerned Paul. Even an emphasis on providence need not be a specific marker for Calvinism; as Walsham says, it was not "a monopoly of the hotter sort of Protestants."¹⁵ There are variations, too, within individual writers, even one as consistent as Calvin. His absolute insistence on the powerless depravity of human action and will before the reign of grace sets a nearly impossible standard; so most Protestant writers, even Calvin himself occasionally, generate ambiguity or imprecision on this central point.¹⁶ It is perhaps inevitable that early modern Catholics and Protestants alike, whatever they knew of theological tenets, hoped that prayers and other spiritual works would offer some recourse against...